Tigers seek to improve, continue winning ways

Saturday

Oct 6, 2012 at 12:01 AM

The Stillman Tigers are leading the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference West Division with a 2-0 conference record and have a 3-2 overall record, but coach Teddy Keaton sees a lot of room to improve in his team.

By Cameron KiszlaSpecial to The Tuscaloosa New

The Stillman Tigers are leading the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference West Division with a 2-0 conference record and have a 3-2 overall record, but coach Teddy Keaton sees a lot of room to improve in his team.

"We have a lot of weaknesses," he said. "One of the things is we have got to tackle better. We have to eliminate mental mistakes, personal fouls, sustaining drives, getting off the field on third down, converting third down. We could go all day on the weaknesses that I feel. We're nowhere near a complete football team."

And with the month of October featuring a gauntlet of challenges for the Tigers, Keaton knows his squad will have to step up to stay in the hunt for the SIAC title.

"The funny part about this is we have got to play three of the top teams coming up here in October," Keaton said. "Tuskegee, Miles, Fort Valley, they're all in the top hunt for the West, like we are, and Fort Valley is leading the East right now. So we have got three good teams coming in to play us. I think our defense does a great job at forcing turnovers, but we have got to be able to capitalize on those turnovers a lot better and sustain some drives against teams who, two of them, are hitting on all cylinders on offense, those teams being Miles and Tuskegee. That means on defense we have got to be able to shut them down, force some turnovers, but when we get an opportunity to get some points, we have got to get those things."

Keaton chalks up some of the sloppy play to youth.

"Right now, we're still in that learning curve," he said. "Being that we're still a young team, we're trying to find an identity, trying to find all the mixes and matches of what players can play and what position they can play in. When you bring in that many young guys, it's hard to fit them all in and find where they play at one time."

HKeaton credits his special teams with keeping his team competitive in close games.

"We're 10 seconds away from being 4-1, but we're 3-2, so I'm happy with where we're at right now," he said. "But the most important thing I think we're good at is our kicking game. Kick off, our special teams play, has really helped us play the field position game and put teams in position and set us up to score."

The Tigers will face their next challenge today, traveling to Columbia, S.C., to face winless Benedict College. Keaton has been preparing his team to compete against "faceless opponents."

"Our challenge is not going up and taking an 0-5 team lightly," he said. "They're a good football team. I compare them to Kentucky State, a little bit. They've got enough talent that they can play with you if you allow them to play. But I feel like that we have enough talent that if we go out, and do the things we should do and how we're supposed to execute, then we'll be fine and come out with a win."